Remember the study about wagging tails in dogs doesn’t necessarily mean they’re happy? Wouldn’t it be great if we could tell what each wag of our dog’s tail mean? Well, a start up company has made claims that they actually have the technology to do so. Dogstar Life’s TailTalk device is a small, water-and chew-resistant band that attaches to a dog’s tail and connects to the DogStar app. It’s sort of like a Fitbit for dogs. The device is adjustable and should fit “dogs and tails of any size.” Check out Maggie, Jane’s dog.
The sensor captures the trajectory of tail-wagging and decodes that information into what the company claims is an accurate representation of a dog’s mood. Based on recent study, left tail wagging connotes negative feelings like fear, aggression and anxiety while right tail wagging shows positive feelings like happiness, excitement or satisfaction. The information is sent from the device to the owner’s phone via bluetooth where apps for IOS and android chart out the dog’s emotional state via line graph. See how Jane’s able to know whether Maggie is stressed with someone or something and at the same she knows when her dog is happy and euphoric? Cool product, yeah?
Some of the emotions that users can expect to see are happy, stressed or euphoric. Golly, I wish humans can also use that! It would be nice if we know ahead of time what type of mood our significant other is feeling so that when they get home we are already prepared. I really think those bands can fit our fingers! Maybe I should get one for this guy sleeping beside me, what do you think?
